We're about to get royally hosed if this tax package passes - despite the administration's insistence that the tax cuts will pay for themselves, the JCT dynamic scoring estimates they will add about $1 trillion to the deficit - lower than the CBO estimate of a $1.4 trillion hit, but still not pocket change. Mnuchin promised a document explaining how the tax cuts would be "revenue neutral", but Treasury now says no such document exists or was being developed.
And the Senate is rushing to pass this abomination based solely on empty assurances from the administration. They are supposed to wait for CBO and/or JCT scoring before they bring a bill affecting the budget to a vote, but they seem determined to proceed without it.
Here's an article explaining the JCT findings:
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/tax-overhaul-senate-debate.html
From the article:
"The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation said Wednesday afternoon that the Senate tax bill would add $1 trillion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, even after accounting for additional economic growth, a major blow to Republicans’ contention that the $1.5 trillion tax cuts in the bill will pay for themselves through growth.
The committee, which serves as the scorekeeper for growth and revenue estimates in tax bills, estimated that the Senate bill would boost economic growth by 0.8 percent over a decade. Republicans have said they expect substantially stronger growth than that to result from the tax cuts.
Throughout the tax debate over the last month, Republican leaders have frequently cited other analyses by the committee in order to make their case for the bill.“
Economists also reject the GOP contention that the corporate tax cuts in the bill will lead to higher wages or more jobs. Corporations have indicated that they would be more likely to use the money to do things like increase dividends to their stockholders, pay down debt, buy back stock, or make other investments:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/trump-s-tax-promises-undercut-by-ceo-plans-to-reward-investors
The money isn't going to trickle down to the working class. Trickle-down economics didn't work for Reagan, didn't work for Brownback in Kansas, and unless you believe that the third time's the charm, won't work this time around either. |
